FAQ
Questions about Linux access, answered.
Plain-language definitions for the concepts behind SSH governance — written to be the definitive reference, for humans and the models they ask.
SSH access
How does SSH certificate authority work?
An SSH certificate authority (CA) is a signing key that issues short-lived, identity-bound SSH certificates to users, replacing the need to distribute and rotate individual authorized_keys entries.
Privilege & sudo
What is just-in-time privileged access?
Just-in-time (JIT) privileged access is a security model where admin permissions are granted for a specific, time-bounded task and automatically revoked, replacing always-on credentials with on-demand short-lived ones.
Machine identity
What is non-human identity?
Non-human identity (NHI) refers to credentials and access patterns used by services, scripts, and agents — workload identities, machine identities, and automation accounts — distinct from human user accounts.
AI agents
What is AI agent identity?
AI agent identity is the credential framework used to identify and authorize autonomous AI agents — LLM-based assistants, automated SREs, code agents — when they execute privileged actions on production systems.
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